Monday, February 6, 2012

Of Teddybears, Fairy Tales and Things that go Bump in the Night

Californication is back for its fifth season, and now we're several episodes in and I'm all caught up. **SPOILERS AHEAD*** It starts out a couple of years after the fourth season ended. We're all done with Hank's probation over the statutory rape of Mia and hopefully she won't pop up again. But having said that, one never knows. Karen is married to Richard Bates (you may remember him as the psychotic drunken writer who likes to show his schlong at inappropriate times), Marci and Stu are still together, and they have a child Stuart, who is actually Charlie's son, conceived after his vasectomy was found not to have taken. At the age of two and a half, Stuart doesn't speak, which disturbs Charlie, but Marci says it's normal. And now Becca, Hank's teenage moody daughter has a boyfriend. And damned if she didn't pick a guy just like her old man. Which he learns, when he catches said boyfriend cheating on her. What's Hank doing? He's writing a script for a rapper named Samurai Apocalypse, who's making the transition to actor, and it's called Santa Monica Cop. Don't dare compare it to Beverly Hills Cop, Sam gets really ticked off. On the flight from NY to California to see about doing this project, Hank meets a lovely lady on the plane and they do it in the bathroom. Of course, being Hank, Karma bites him in the ass when he discovers that he just boned Samurai A's girl.

Besides sharing custody of his son, Charlie isn't doing very well in the romance department (not that Hank is doing much better - he broke up with a girl in NY who turned out to be all kinds of crazy and torched his apartment, played by the actress who plays Winona Hawkins on Justified). Charlie's problem is that he treats women the way he sees them treated in the porn he loves - and that doesn't get him very far. Now let's talk about Charlie for a minute. As an agent, he's had his ups and downs. If you'll recall, he was fired from one agency because he was caught too many times in the act of self-love while in his office. Hank's his main client, but Hank had a dry spell. And then the whole Mia stealing his book thing. He worked briefly for Kathleen Turner, who demanded he service her when she wanted it. It was through her that he met Rick Springfield and Marci got to have her fantasy fuck. Then there was the whole Vagina Town debacle, and his liason with the girl who became the porn actress.

In last night's episode, Charlie got a long time wish when he and Hank went with Samurai Apocalypse on a ride along with the police department, to prepare for the role. Of course things got horribly fucked up. The policeman had a seizure at a donut shop and they had to call 911. At that point, they should have taken the car back and found something else to do. But that would have been sensible, right? Especially after Samurai learns his girl, who left him two weeks before, is out with some dude. Things go from bad to worse. After that, Hank gets a call from Becca. Her bf has gotten Richard drunk and he's exposing himself in public. In attempting to deal with that, the bf recognizes Samurai as one of the group that beat the shit out of him after Hank caught him cheating, and now Becca and Karen think he had something to do with that, which he didn't. And then Charlie ends up getting a blow job from a tranny hooker, which Hank and Samurai are bound to never let him forget.

Charlie Runkle. Yes, he's not perfect, far from it. But there is something about him. He's a teddy bear. He's cuddly and adorable. If I had to choose between him and Hank for dating purposes, sorry Hank, but I'm taking Charlie. Hank is not only hopelessly in love with Karen, he's also incapable of commitment and being in a long term relationship. Charlie has possibilities. I think with the right woman, he'd settle down and be a great husband and father. He has very pretty eyes. And bald is sexy, so yeah...

Grimm is still going strong, and I hope it stays that way. I enjoy the stories, the writing and acting are good. It's a definite twist on a police show, and I know there are interesting things ahead. I especially enjoy the relationship between Nick and Monroe, his werewolf friend. In one episode, Monroe suffered bodily harm from other supernaturals because of his relationship with Nick. But he decided he wasn't going to give in to their pressure, he'd help Nick all he wanted to. The make-up and cgi work is really great. The last episode was based on Hansel and Gretel and concerned a black market for human organs. They take familiar fairy tales and give them a modern twist. I'm not sure what the ratings are, so watch it while you can. It's definitely worth it.

***SPOILERS***Once Upon a Time is getting really good too. After the death of the Sheriff, Emma was elected as his replacement, to Regina's dismay. Mary Margaret and David try to fight their feelings for one another, as David is trying to be a good husband to a wife he doesn't remember, but their love is too strong. After a storm, Regina has had Henry's secret play area torn down, to his distress. And his book is now missing. Emma tries to catch her in misappropriation of town funds, but only succeeds in making her look better when it's revealed that she's planning a park for the children, including Henry, to play in. Emma turns to Sidney, whom Regina has cast off, to help her take the Mayor down, and we learn about Sidney's story - as the wicked queen's one time lover who became the genie in the mirror. What Emma doesn't realize is that Sidney is not what he appears to be, and he's still in Regina's pocket. A stranger has come to town, and Emma and Henry both wonder why and who he is, cause strangers never come to Storybrooke - other than Emma. I suspect he's Henry's father, but we'll just have to see. Sunday nights on ABC - definitely worth watching.

Top Chef Texas is winding down, hopefully they have a great replacement waiting in the wings. Not the best Top Chef season they've ever had. In last week's we were down to five chefs, and I was afraid Edward was going to be axed, but he's still in. I'm really happy that Beverly got taken out, I just hope she doesn't come back with that little survivor thing they have going on after each episode. I think we'll find out this week. Apparently, she beat Nyesha, so let's hope someone beats her or we'll see her back again. I'm rooting for Edward all the way!

There is a new Restaurant Impossible this week and a new Chopped. Looking forward to those. No Iron Chef America, instead it was a night of Cupcake Wars. I watch that sometimes, but it's of limited interest. New Alcatraz tonight, looking forward to it. I'll talk about the new season of Vampire Diaries another time.